Myitkyina , Myanmar -LRB- CNN -RRB- On the surface , this riverfront town looks prosperous , peaceful and green ; a trading hub that profits from lucrative gemstone mines located in the hinterland of Myanmar 's northern Kachin State .

Dig deeper , though , and a dark undercurrent exists -- what community leaders say is a major heroin epidemic .

Even on the campus of Myitkyina University , used syringes spill out of metal garbage bins marked with signs urging users to properly dispose of drug paraphernalia to avoid the spread of infections like HIV .

More needles litter the rocky banks of the Irrawaddy River , near the terminal where boatmen ship fuel , vegetables and the occasional foreign tourist up and down the waterway .

Community leaders offer shockingly high estimates for drug use among young people in this part of Myanmar .

`` Every family has this drug problem ... I think 65 % or 70 % of young people use drugs , '' says Reverend Samson Hkalam , the head of the Kachin Baptist Convention , the largest group of churches in the state .

`` The drug is the first enemy of the Kachin people , '' he adds .

How heroin kills you

Conflict zone

The Kachin are an ethnic and predominantly Christian religious minority in Myanmar , which is a majority Buddhist country . For much of the last half century , Kachin State has also been a battleground in a conflict between Myanmar 's military and an insurgency led by militants from the Kachin Independence Army .

Some Kachin community leaders argue drug abuse now claims more lives than the decades-long conflict , which is estimated to have forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes in the last three years .

But this claim is challenged by the top counter narcotics police commander in Myitkyina . In a phone conversation with CNN , Sai Thein Zaw downplays the sight of used heroin syringes on the town 's streets .

`` Drug problems are not unique to Kachin state or Myanmar for that matter , '' he says , before claiming that government efforts to combat the region 's drug problem have been successful .

But a recent United Nations report suggests otherwise .

The United Nations ' Office on Drugs and Crime says poppy production in Myanmar more than doubled between 2006 and 2013 , while opium production jumped 26 % from 2012 to 2013 . Myanmar ranks as the world 's second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan .

Desperate measures

In Myitkyina , desperate times call for desperate measures .

Community leaders send out volunteers to clean used needles off the streets , while church groups organize raids against suspected drug dealers , sharing photos and videos of what they say are confiscated narcotics that they subsequently burn .

In one unusual video filmed and released by the group Ram Hkye -LRB- or `` Save Youth '' -RRB- , a pastor wearing a motorcycle helmet preaches through a megaphone at more than a dozen men squatted on a dirt road with syringes bulging from their biceps and hands . The pastor , backed up by a man playing guitar , distributes religious pamphlets to the heroin users , one of whom claps listlessly along with a hymn as a needle protrudes from one of his veins .

Community groups have also gotten into the business of addiction treatment . At least a half dozen faith-based rehabilitation centers have sprung up in areas around Myitkyina in the last two years .

One of them , the Light of the World camp , is a compound on the banks of the Irrawaddy surrounded by 10-foot high aluminum walls as well as a guard tower . The main gate to the compound locks from the outside . There is no handle on the inside of the gate .

`` We need to have the walls , '' says Zau Tu , a pastor leading the team who was treating at least 18 patients at the camp .

`` If they -LRB- the patients -RRB- ca n't see anything around them , it calms them down . ''

For those patients who ca n't control their urges , there are more drastic measures available , including a cage next to the camp 's bamboo chapel .

`` If they commit crimes , if they fight each other , they go in the penalty box , '' says Zau Tu .

` Jesus not methadone '

At faith-based rehabilitation camps like Light of the World , counselors do n't administer methadone -- the synthetic opioid often used to treat heroin addicts .

`` We use the words of Jesus instead of methadone , '' explains Nding Ahga , a recovered heroin addict and former rock star who runs the Youth for Christ Center , about a mile up the river from Light of the World .

Ahga 's camp is not walled . But patients spend their first week in rehabilitation overcoming drug withdrawal symptoms while locked in a prison-like room that Ahga called the `` prayer room . ''

All 12 of Ahga 's patients are laborers who said they had come from the jade mines of Hpakant , located several hours ' drive northwest of Myitkyina .

No San , 29 , showed the track marks and scars left in his arms and veins after years of heroin abuse .

`` I was hot , I was burning , '' he recalls , describing his first agonizing week of heroin withdrawal .

He and the other patients say heroin and other drugs are bought and sold in the open in an outdoor market near the jade mines .

`` We can get drugs easily everywhere in Hpakant , '' No San adds . `` All of the miners take drugs . It 's not strange for us . You can buy drugs at the store easily . ''

Nding Ahga shares footage he filmed secretly during a recent visit to one of the heroin bazaars in Hpakant . The video shows a row of crude shops and stalls that also served as a `` shooting gallery , '' an area where drug users could inject heroin in the open without fear from law enforcement officers .

Asked why counter narcotics officers do not intervene in Hpakant , Sai Thein Zaw of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control in Myitkyina blames the Kachin insurgency .

`` It is difficult to work in places like Hpakant because peace has not been achieved between the government and Kachin State , '' he says . `` So it is hard to implement programs that work toward eliminating drugs in the region . ''

Worst yet to come

Despite state and community-led efforts to battle the drug trade , many community leaders predicted the worst was yet to come in Kachin .

Due in part to high unemployment in the region , Reverend Hkalam says many recovering addicts quickly relapse after rehabilitation treatment .

`` We see that the main problem is follow-up and vocational training , '' he says . `` Because if they go back home , jobless , it 's very easy to return to the drugs again . ''

The scene at an overgrown cemetery near a camp for families displaced by the conflict underscores the scale of the heroin epidemic .

Hundreds -- if not thousands -- of empty syringe wrappers litter the ground around crypts and tombs that had been nearly swallowed by vegetation . Used syringes and glass vials lay amid the graves .

Against this macabre backdrop of death and drug abuse , our team encounters a couple of men injecting heroin at sunset .

Surprised by foreign visitors , the men hastily hide their needles .

One of the men , who identifies himself only as a 30-year-old farmer , uses leaves from a bush to wipe away blood dripping down his arm as he speaks .

He says he can buy a dose of heroin for as little as 4,000 kyat , which is roughly equivalent to four U.S. dollars .

`` If I have more money , I will use more -LSB- heroin -RSB- , '' the man says . `` There are no limits if I have money . ''

After a 10-minute conversation , both drug users climb onto a motorcycle and ride away along the syringe-strewn path between the tombstones .

Their used needles lie discarded in the grass .

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CNN team encounters problem with heroin addiction in Myanmar 's northern Kachin State

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Region has been unstable for decades due to conflict between government forces and rebels

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Community leaders estimate 65 % to 70 % of young people use drugs here

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Church and community groups battling to help addicts rehabilitate